When asked about the choice to use cardboard to create puppets, artist Brian Fidler didn’t hesitate with his answer.

“It’s free,” he said recently over the phone from the Ramshackle Theatre studio in Whitehorse.

Fidler and his partner in Ramshackle, Edward Westerhuis, have created the multimedia theatre show Tombstone: A Cardboard Western. The show is part of the rEvolver Theatre Festival from May 24-June 4 at The Cultch in Vancouver.

“We raid Dumpsters and we go to the recycling depot. We get everything we need from cardboard,” said Fidler about scavenging in the name of art. “I started out with cardboard, but Edward has really taken it to the next level. They’re sculptures. They’re works of art. They are really quite incredible.”

The robot army takes to the stage in Ramshackle Theatre’s show Tombstone: A Cardboard Western. The production is part of this year’s rEvolver Theatre Festival.Edward Westerhuis /
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Everything in the show is made from cardboard and held together with glue and magnets. The Tombstone show is a kind of spaghetti western brushed with a bit of futuristic flare. The show, that debuted March 30 at the Yukon Arts Centre, exists in two mediums at the same time.

“The audience can either watch us making this small puppet show, because we are totally visible or they can look at the screen, which is the finished science-fiction B movie,” said Fidler about the hour-long show that is literally edited live.

Ramshackle Theatre’s show Tombstone: A Cardboard Western is one of the shows to headline this year’s rEvolver Theatre Festival.Bruce Barrett /
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The show is a followup to Ramshackle’s Sci-Fi Double Feature show that debuted at the first rEvolver Theatre Festival five years ago.

“This one is a no-brainer,” said the festival’s co-artistic director, Upintheair Theatre’s Daniel Martin, about Tombstone’s latest offering. “We knew how good Sci-Fi was and this was the result of them refining that style for another four years and pushing it further. This was probably the first show we programmed this year because we knew it was going to be great.

“It’s really a neat art form and there is nothing else like it as far as I am aware.”

“It is in the same style as our first one. We’ve gone further into the style, though,” added Fidler. “This time we are playing a lot more with perspective and scale.”

Ramshackle shows are appropriate for all ages. Martin explained that last time around the matinees drew in a large family crowd, while evening shows also attracted what he called, “bearded stoners in costumes.”

“The full spectrum comes to this one,” said Martin.

It’s not a surprise puppets would please parents and kids, but it’s worth noting that these puppets seem to connect just a little bit more.

“We hear from people that we inspire their kids,” said Fidler. “It inspires people to realize that they can make their own kind of thing just out of very simple material.”

The folks behind Tombstone: A Cardboard Western are hoping their Cultch run will attract other theatre and festival directors, something the rEvolver Theatre Festival has done in the past as it focused on programming emerging and mid-career artists.

“That is where we see ourselves fitting in the ecosystem where there is a gap. That’s why we moved into this area in the first place,” said Martin, who co-produces the festival with David Mott. “You know between people doing shows in the Fringe and hiring the Havana and getting programmed at the Cultch and PuSh there was a big gap where artists were pretty much on their own, good luck. So we felt there was a need for a venue, a space for those artists in which they could get help and could continue to be supported.”

On the schedule is a mixture of shows, including the inaugural dance show (i.m)position from Vancouver’s Luciterra Dance Company, to the popular touring production, The Princess Show.

“It’s really incredible. It is a nice launching pad for us,” said Fidler about rEvolver. “We can invite presenters from across the country and have them see the work because it is hard to get people to come up here. Even though people are intrigued with the north, it’s still tough to come up for just a one-off. To be able to go down to Vancouver and be in a beautiful theatre like The Cultch and be involved in a festival that has some good traction and there are good people, it really helps us.”

In the past, some notable rEvolver discoveries include: Stationary, a Recession-Era Musical; Tucked and Plucked: Vancouver’s Drag History Live on Stage; Kayak; 2 for Tea; and okay.odd.

“We’ve premiered a lot of works that have their first workshop production here, but then go to be in The Cultch, to tour across Canada, to get picked-up by big theatres,” said Martin. “So there is the real chance to see a hot young thing before they make it to the big time.”

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Cardboard finds new life in Ramshackle production at rEvolver Theatre Festival

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